In today's texts, the Isaiah text stresses God has never looked at situations as people do, and the Matthew text (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount) demonstrates how people who think they have God's purposes identified can completely miss God's concerns.
Contrast the disgust with Judah's multifaceted involvement in evil in Isaiah 1:4-4:26 with the determination to give the distressed people of Judah hope in Isaiah 55:6-13. That definitely is not "human like." In human behavior, the hope of assurance has no place in a long-term behavior that produces such depth of disgust. God's thoughts and ways are decidedly different from human thoughts and ways when genuine repentance is involved.
In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we have the Pharisees' standards/views reflected and contrasted with Jesus' standards/views in 5:17-6:18. Jesus declared God's view in the standards he declared. The Pharisees were looked upon as being the conservative religious voice by the majority of the common people. The Pharisees truly believed they spoke for and represented God's views and God's values. It is frightening to see how confident they were in declaring God's standards and concerns, and how much they missed God's actual intent.
From Genesis 2 to Genesis 6, humanity goes from the highest height to the lowest depth in human existence. People go from the height of sinless, direct association with God, prior to rebellion against God (consider Genesis 3:8), to being so evil that God could not tolerate the wickedness of people (consider Genesis 6:5-7). God's desire to rescue people from evil is evident in the fact that He would begin again with just one person who was righteous (had integrity) in his time (generations) [Genesis 6:8, 9].
"The fall" involved a dramatic separation between God and humanity. The introduction of rebellion against God in human decisions and acts resulted in the perversion of the creation that so pleased God in Genesis 1:31. People literally go from direct association with God to a disassociation with God they had never known. The existence of evil in human life changed people so completely that we today cannot even imagine a world without evil. Today, evil seems necessary to us for the world (as we know it) to continue. Consider just one example. If there were no evil, there would be no need for any type of security forces. How many people would be "out of work" if all forces associated with security and all industries dependent on security needs ceased to exist? Can you imagine that? In your thinking, would that be good or bad?
Even though "the fall" was the direct result of human failure, God wanted to rescue humanity from their own failure. Grace is not an invention of the New Testament, but a part of the character of God revealed in His association with humanity.
Regardless of what you have learned about "the fall," you are challenged to consider statements from scripture. "The fall" generated by rebellion against God was both immediate and continuing. Because people rebelled against God by yielding to temptation, some consequences of human rebellion were immediate. For the woman, consequences involved pain in reproduction. For the man, consequences involved difficulty in providing physical necessities. A consequence was the loss of their home. However, do not assume that the consequences involved an immediate plunge into total evil from the moment God pronounced consequences. Matters could get worse because of the existence of evil in human life, and did!
"The fall" resulted in the immediate separation of God and humanity. The relationship between humanity and God was altered by the consequences of human rebellion in yielding to temptation. People could not heal the breach their wickedness caused. However, that separation did not immediately produce the total yielding to the existence of wickedness in human life. People would sink to the low of the absence of God's influence generations later.
After the initial rebellion, in the descendants of Seth there were people who wanted to call upon the Lord's name. To them, God was Lord, and they wanted to approach him (Genesis 4:26). They were not like Cain who foolishly thought he could distance himself from God by geographically going "out from the presence of the Lord" (Genesis 4:16). Sadly, this period ended when the people that sought God intermarried with people who wanted nothing to do with God (consider Genesis 6:1-3, 5).
Even after "the fall" there were people like Abel, Seth, and Seth's descendants who wish to seek and please God. It is the view of this author that these are the people called "the sons of God" in Genesis 6:1. There also were people who evaded association with God. It was the intermarriage of these two groups that led to a complete unconcern about God. The eventual consequence of such intermarriage was a complete unconcern for God and the total rule of evil in humanity. We likely cannot imagine a human existence with that extent of evil.
God gave humanity a new beginning in the flood. Humanity did not take advantage of the opportunity. God provided the initiative, but humanity, in full awareness of the consequences of wickedness, did not take advantage of the opportunity.
In the event of the flood, God destroyed the wicked and began again with the best human available. However (even will full and graphic awareness of the horrible consequences of evil), people were incapable of living on the highest godly plain again after Adam and Eve yielded to temptation.
God patiently waited until He found a person who would place a different kind confidence in Him before He took initiative again. God's initiative was unchanged--the recovery of people from wickedness which mean the restoration of His place as the "all in all" (See 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
God patiently waited until a human could trust and seek His ways with confidence in His improbable promises before He took initiative again.
God made the promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 22:18). God repeated the promise to Jacob (Genesis 281-3; 28:13, 14). God affirmed through Isaiah that His promise was the core purpose of Israel as a nation (Isaiah 49:3-6). God affirmed through Paul that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:16).
Stress the consistency of God's intent until He fulfilled His promise.
Instead of looking at God's work in blocks, look at God's promise to bless the nations as a megaphone. It began small with one childless man. It ends huge with God's gift of a son to the world (John 3:16-21; 12:30-33: Acts 10:34-43). What God promised to Abraham, God fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Acts 2:36).
Use and explain the graphic to make certain this point is understood. The basic point of the graphic is to illustrate the consistency of God's intent. God's intent to rescue people from the evil they committed was constant.
God's purpose has not changed with time. God's purpose existed before Abraham. God wanted to make it possible for people to be recovered from the slavery of wickedness. God patiently waited until He could send the Messiah/Christ/Savior, and He patiently waits for the nations to respond to His effort (2 Peter 3:9). We assist God's purpose by committing to God's purpose through giving ourselves to the Christ to be his disciples.
You do not have the opportunity or the resources to accomplish God's purpose throughout the whole world. You can see that God's purpose is accomplished in your life. Then your life is available to God to assist in the accomplishment of His purpose.
For Thought and Discussion
Humanity goes from the highest height of human existence to the lowest depth of human existence.
It was both immediate and continuing.
Do not assume that immediate separation from sinless relationship with God resulted in an immediate plunge into the total absence of God's influence.
They wanted to call on the name of the Lord.
Cain foolishly thought he could distance himself from God by putting geographical space between himself and God.
It ended when intermarriage ended the desire to call upon the name of the Lord.
God gave humanity opportunity to begin anew.
He waited until a person could place confidence in Him and His promises.
Look at God's intent to bless the nations as a megaphone.
We do so by giving ourselves to Jesus Christ to be his disciples.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 3
